Tomb of Dracula #10 Facsimile Edition Review

As Marv Wolfman settles into his historic run on Tomb of Dracula we’re introduced to Blade the vampire hunter! Let’s see what happens!

Tomb of Dracula was one of the more popular of Marvel’s “horror” comics they put out in the early/mid-’70s. By issue 10 Tomb of Dracula had already had 4 writers but had finally reached some consistency when Marv Wolfman started on issue 7. Issue 10 is a stand-alone story of sorts, but Wolfman began planting seeds of Blades entrance into the series issues prior. And while this issue is a great introduction to Blade it comes at the expense of three of the main supporting characters that have been involved from the beginning of the series. But that’s sort of besides the point. This issue is about Blade. Blade the vampire killer. And he makes quite an entrance!

Keep in mind, this issue originally came out in July of 1973, so don’t let Blade’s fashion choices deter you. It was very “in” at the time.

At first, I thought I was looking at Miles Davis, my favorite trumpet player, not Blade!!

As with all the previous issues of the series the art is the highlight of the series, at least for this reviewer. Gene Colon is a master of creating a horror type atmosphere that really adds a lot to the ambiance.

The actual story is nothing to write home about. Dracula is on a party ship and Blade makes an appearance and Dracula ends up blowing the ship up as people jump overboard and Dracula flies away as a bat. It is, however, a nice introduction to Blade who we all know is still very active in the Marvel universe.

Marv Wolfman would go on to write the series until the end of the decade, making it one of the most beloved runs in Marvel history. I wish that Marvel would have released this just two weeks prior on October 30th to take advantage of a Dracula book out the day before Halloween, but that’s nitpicking a bit.

If you enjoyed this review, or would like to see some more Tomb of Dracula reviews, check out the Weird Science Marvel retro review page here.

Final Thoughts:

This is a solid issue, but the introduction of Blade is at the expense of some other established characters. The art by Gene Colon is the highlight of the issue.